NOVGO.NET Chapter 3958: Advancement and Inevitabilities! II
Chapter 3958: Advancement and Inevitabilities! II
The transition between Existence should have been instantaneous, a mere blink between one existence and another, but Duke Gwendolyn’s power carried them across countless weavings of Existence with such force that Noah felt every impossible fold they traversed!
Each layer pressed against his consciousness like pages in a book being riffled by an impatient reader, thousands of stories and possibilities bleeding into one another until the very concept of distance became meaningless.
When they finally materialized, Noah’s first sensation was suffocation of existence itself!
It was...familiar.
It was Paradox!
The space around them defied every natural law. Obsidian cloth hung in the air like frozen waterfalls, each drape twisting into its neighboring fabrics. The material seemed to flow upward and downward simultaneously, creating corridors that led everywhere and nowhere, passages that existed in states of being both open and closed.
It was as if someone had taken the concept of a maze and wrapped it in funeral shrouds, then set those shrouds to dancing in winds that blew from dimensions that should not exist.
The very air tasted of contradiction...sweet and bitter, thick and thin, present and absent all at once!
Out of the many Living Existential Authorities Noah commanded...Paradox truly took a special place as it seemed...natural!
Each breath Noah drew felt like inhaling possibility itself, raw and unfiltered, scraping against his enhanced perception like sandpaper made from compressed paradoxes.
But it was what lay before them that truly commanded attention.
Where space should have continued its paradoxical dance of obsidian drapery, there was instead a wound in Existence itself.
Mirror-black fissures folded in upon themselves with the wet, organic movement of a dying creature’s final breath, each crack revealing glimpses of something golden and terrible within.
The collapsed space pulsed with a hunger as it was the hunger of absence itself, demanding to be filled with anything and everything that dared exist near it.
Noah felt his body lean forward involuntarily, drawn by a pull!
It was as if every particle of his being recognized that golden depths as a destination, a final resting place where all journeys ended.
His 1002% resistances screamed in protest, holding him back from simply walking forward into obliteration, but the effort required was considerable even for someone of his power.
This...was what true danger felt like!
Floating before this wound, maintaining position with apparent ease despite the inexorable pull, was a figure encased in obsidian armor so dark it seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
The armor itself was a work of art, each plate had been carved with paradoxical symbols and runes.
Sigrid tensed beside him, her hand finding his with instinctive wariness. Through their connection, he felt her recognition spark into confusion, then shock as the crystalline faceplate of the armor began to separate with the sound of breaking ice.
The face revealed beneath was impossibly, undeniably familiar.
"Duke Gwendolyn?" Sigrid’s voice cracked with disbelief. "How...?"
The smile that spread across this other Gwendolyn’s features held layers of satisfaction at this response!
This was not mere illusion or projection, he could feel the authentic weight of Paradoxical Authority radiating from her form, as real and undeniable as the Origin Authority her other body commanded!
"Everyone has their talents, Young Miss," Duke Gwendolyn said.
"Mine was being capable of forming an Origin Embryo that could become anything. And so..." She gestured to herself with armored hands that moved with deadly grace, "I had this body become a Living Paradox."
HUUM!
An Origin Embryo that could become anything.
She had literally created a second self that operated according to entirely different fundamental principles!
It was not unlike what Moiraine had achieved as an Arch Living Existence, capable of holding two authorities simultaneously, or Sigrid herself who embodied both Order and Origin.
"Come," Duke Gwendolyn continued, gesturing toward the hungry golden depths behind her. "I will continue standing guard here while you all enter. What you see behind me is a Living Doorway of the Loom that has devoured everything nearby. Only someone with the complexity of an Honored Existence can resist its pull enough to enter or leave safely."
She paused, allowing them to absorb the magnitude of what they were about to attempt.
"It is a dangerous domain, as chaotic as anything can be, so..." Her gaze found Sigrid with meaningful intensity, "You can go all out with your restoration of order. Inevitabilities are silent, deadly, and unable to be observed until they make their move. They prefer to target the weakest first, so you two..."
Her attention shifted between Noah and Sigrid.
"The two of you will proceed slightly ahead. Thessaly, Titano, and Altheon will remain hidden but can move instantly to ensure your safety should the need arise."
Noah met her gaze with eyes thst burned with Tyranny.
This Duke who wore two faces, who embodied contradiction while serving Origin, was playing a game. A dangerous one!
Sigrid nodded, her hand tightening briefly around Noah’s before she released it to maintain proper appearance. "We understand."
Noah moved from Titano’s side with fluid grace, the massive being’s disappointed expression at losing his instructor almost comical given the circumstances.
As he took his position beside Sigrid, Noah offered her a smile that carried both reassurance and anticipation!
Duke Gwendolyn’s commands rang out with crisp authority.
Her final glance settled on Thessaly with particular weight, and though no words were spoken aloud, the fairy-like being’s cold expression shifted to one of absolute determination.
|Protect the Young Miss at all costs.|
The mental command might as well have been carved into the fundamental laws of existence for the weight it carried.
Then they were moving forward, allowing the Doorway’s pull to claim them.
The sensation began as pressure against his skin, gentle at first like sinking into warm water.
But as they crossed the threshold where existence ended and the Doorway began, that pressure multiplied exponentially!
Noah felt his existence compress, every atom of his being squeezed through a space that should not have been able to accommodate anything larger than a thought.
His enhanced perception screamed contradictory information...he was being stretched across infinity while simultaneously being crushed into a point smaller than zero.
...!
This was what coming close to the Loom felt like!
The golden depths rushed up to meet them, or perhaps they fell into it, or perhaps both states existed simultaneously in this place where paradox ruled.
Noah felt his various Glyphs flare with protective authority, each one fighting to maintain his coherent existence against forces that wanted nothing more than to scatter him across dimensions and reassemble him.
Then, between one heartbeat and the next, they arrived!
HUUM!
The impact of materialization in this new space hit Noah alongside prompts as he rapidly analyzed his new surroundings.
|You have entered the Living Doorway: The Paradoxical Executor of Unmaking|
|All Living Existential Authority effectiveness reduced by 50% due to paradoxical interference. The very nature of this domain rejects ordered expression of power.|
...!
|Multiplication Paradox Active: All encountered Lifeforms, Herbs, and Inevitabilities will immediately gain the effect "Paradoxical Proliferation" - any singular entity becomes five identical copies upon manifestation before you. These copies, if Inevitabilities or applicable lifeforms, share distributed consciousness and must be eliminated simultaneously to achieve true death.
|Entropic Storms: Periodic waves of pure dissolution will sweep through the domain at irregular intervals. These storms strip 10% of all resistances temporarily and inflict stacking deterioration.|
|Execution Pillars: Massive columns of concentrated Living Existential Authority manifest spontaneously throughout the domain. Contact results in immediate complexity reduction of 10,000,000 source units per second of exposure. Pillars provide no warning before manifestation.|
...!
Sheesh!